


Saying Goodbye

by Melethril



Category: Avengers Assemble (Cartoon), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Hurt No Comfort, Hurt Tony Stark, Insecure Tony Stark, The Author is Emotionally Compromised, and angry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-12
Updated: 2016-03-12
Packaged: 2018-05-26 06:20:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,195
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6227290
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Melethril/pseuds/Melethril
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony says goodbye to Arsenal and contemplates his place on the team.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Saying Goodbye

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so I spent the better portion of last night watching the Avengers Assemble Cartoon. I like the show quite a bit, but…
> 
> My God, that team is so dysfunctional, it's not even funny!
> 
> And Tony gets the brunt of it. I don't know how they treat Tony in the comics, I have only done some basic research on that end, but if they treat him like in this cartoon, it's a miracle the man didn't go the mad scientist supervillain routine at some point (personality inversion aside, and you gotta see his points of the Civil War).  
> Seriously, all they ever seem to do is complain about him, about his style of doing things, about his way of leading the team, it's ridiculous! If they do say something nice about him, well, it's usually after he nearly kills himself in order to save the world, and what does that tell you about their relationship? If one of my friends risked their lives, I would be pissed. Also, yes, when he goes off to do something, they are angry, but more along the lines of 'Oh, Stark is doing his solo thing again!'  
> Then when he offers to step down as team leader after Sam got hurt due to a bad judgment call, they go at him again for only thinking about himself.  
> Steve is the worst in the whole thing. He is a self-righteous prick 85% of the time! He pretends to let Tony lead but then questions his every move, and actually leaves the team because of Tony's selfishness thereby taking half of the team with him? What? I mean, what?  
> The whole thing with Arsenal was the most painful: you could see that Tony adores the guy, looks at him as a living and breathing thing (like JARVIS), and he wanted to save Arsenal after Ultron took over (and he saw a possible chance), but Steve practically calls him a selfish ass for trying to save his friend… If Tony would be willing to sacrifice people for 'the greater good', I am sure Steve would be the first to call him an immoral bastard for even considering it. Personally, I think Arsenal was much more than just a program and could probably be called a person, but it doesn't matter. To Tony, he was real, and somebody he loved, and Steve wants him to kill Arsenal when the latter was under mind-control. Really, Cap?
> 
> Worst of the whole thing is: It seems like there is only the team: no Pepper, no Rhodey… All of them but especially Tony must be so lonely...
> 
> So, I decided to write this piece to vent some of my frustration because I have already written the low-point of the Steve-Tony interaction in my story 'Knowledge Comes With a Price Tag', and I wanted to avoid that my personal dissatisfaction with Captain America in Avengers Assemble leaks into that other story.
> 
> I apologize for the rant, but could still go on for hours!
> 
> Did anybody else see the cartoon? What are your thoughts?

_‚Into the distance, a ribbon of black_

_Stretched to the point of no turning back_

_A flight of fancy on a windswept field_

_Standing alone my senses reeled_

_A fatal attraction is holding me fast,_

_How can I escape this irresistible grasp?’_

 

Tony stood alone at the very edges of a cemetery as he quietly sang the lyrics of a song that did not really fit into this place, but it was about flying, and Arsenal had loved to learn how to fly with Tony. Arsenal had always liked his singing too, had encouraged him to do it long after Tony had decided that it was childish. It was a beautiful evening in August, but the billionaire found no joy in it. The only _person_ with him was not actually a person, but JARVIS in pocket form. If the others knew what he was doing, well, he knew what they would say.

‘ _It’s just a robot, Tony.’_ Clint would not understand.

 _‘How could you risk everyone for something that isn’t even alive?’_ Cap had made his opinion awfully clear.

 _‘Stark, we don’t have time for you to cry over scraps of metal.’_ She would not say ‘man up!’ but the intent was the same.

_‘We mourn the death of the living, Stark, but metal does not go to Valhalla.’_

Hulk probably would not say anything. He was awfully attached to those glass figurines.

_‘It did not have feelings. He was just a program. A highly sophisticated one, granted, and I’d love to take a look at the code if you just let me.’_

No! Nobody would look at Arsenal; he would never allow something as invasive as this.

The past months had been crazy, not a minute of peace between Ultron’s ultimate defeat and all the other villains who had decided to wreck havoc on the world.

“Hey, Buddy, missed you, sorry for not coming by earlier,” said Tony quietly, hands in his pockets and his head lowered. “But you know how it is with the hero business. After all, you were one.”

He never should have called in the others, or at least stepped down as a leader once they had retrieved Cap. The first mission had been a dead giveaway.

Oh, he was pretty sure they did not hate him, but sometimes he had the awful feeling that they liked him a lot less (if at all) than he cared for them. They did not trust him, none of them did, Cap least of all.

Well, after Natasha. Natasha would drop his dead corpse somewhere without shedding a tear, which Cap would not do, simply because it would be ethically wrong to do so.

Hawkeye looked to Natasha for guidance, and, even though he had followed Tony during their brief split, it had been a rebellious move rather than out of loyalty. The same thing also applied to Thor. It was always difficult to discern what Hulk thought. He was fairly sure the giant green man did not dislike him, but that was about it. Sam did not trust him either, which stung rather badly. He felt responsible for the kid like he would for the younger brother he never had. The kid was not an ungrateful prick, so he had stayed at the tower (he could not fault Sam for following Cap; the boy worshipped the ground Cap walked on, not unlike Tony at that age), but he had obviously misinterpreted their bond.

_‘Tell us your plans, Stark!’_

_‘How can we follow someone who does what he wants without considering other options?’_

_‘That’s Tony for you. He’s not a team player, and that makes him an awful leader.’_

_‘Stats and technology aren’t everything. You don’t get it, Tony!’_

_‘You can’t just go off and do things solo, Stark!’_

_‘Did you expect anything else from him?’_

The billionaire squeezed his eyes shut cursing his memory. What did they want from him? He could not explain as fast as he thought! It was impossible, and his brain worked double-time during missions. He could not explain if he tried until after everything was done. He had tried, actually, so many times!

“They are right, aren’t they, Buddy? I’m an awful leader. I should just step down and let Cap lead. Back to old times.”

But then, the last time he had tried to step down they had been angry too.

“Or step down as an Avenger altogether, what do you think?” he asked the small piece of metal he had found and buried at this spot.

“Sir, if I may,” interjected JARVIS gently. “If we look at every mission since the Avengers have reassembled, your presence was vital for success in 95% of the cases.”

Tony smiled ruefully, “Can’t always trust the stats, JARVIS. Besides, what about near misses and complete disasters because of me? Never mind,” said the engineer softly as he could practically feels his loyal AI’s misery at his response. “Cap is right. I should behave more like Dad, and less like… _me_.”

Cap had not said it quite like that, but the intent was clear.

_‘This is not how the Avengers operate. This is not how your father operated…’_

Before he had become Iron Man, Tony had always felt like he could never step out of his father’s overly long shadow. After Afghanistan, he had finally found a purpose, and a way to be himself. All it needed was one word from Cap, and he felt like he was that stupid twelve-year-old again trying to impress a man who would always be greater and smarter than he was.

“Sir, may I remind you that your father may have made the specifications and final design of Arsenal, but you were the one to write the code… At a very young age nevertheless,” JARVIS added, obviously feeling protective.

Tony laughed humorlessly.

Yes, and wasn’t that a joke of universal proportions?

Tony Stark had no friends with the exception of those he built for himself, and he had killed both of them. Thankfully, he had been able to restore JARVIS, but it did not change the fact that he had sacrificed them to save the world.

Did that make him a hero or just a really shitty friend?

“Till next time, Arsenal. I miss you,” whispered Tony, trying to keep it together, as he slowly walked away.

He really should step down, but they would just say the same things they had last time.

_Stark Men are made of iron!_

Howard Stark’s motto rang in Tony’s ears and he straightened his shoulders in response. He was _not_ one of those whiny, self-pitying little heroes ( _‘There is no time for the ‘woe is me’ routine, Stark’_ ): he was Anthony Edward Stark, heir of Stark Industries, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist and a genius, thank you very much! He would do his job, save the world, and if they did not want him as their leader, well, all they had to do was ask.

They just never did. Cap had never said he wanted to lead the team again, he had simply quit the minute he was not happy with Tony.

All he had to do was ask.

**Author's Note:**

> CA:CW Trailer 2 => This movie is going to kill me, I just know it. It will take my heart and completely crush it :(
> 
> Edit (approximately 3 hours after initial post): In the hope of reading some Avengers Assemble fluff to calm my fried nerves, I came across a brilliant story by Caroly214 ("The Measure of a Man") - if I was Bruce Banner, I would have Hulk-ed out because it just rekindled my anger.  
> It's a brilliant piece, very well written, saying pretty much everything that angered me as well, and I highly recommend it.


End file.
